The MexicoBlog of the CIP Americas Program monitors and analyzes international press on Mexico with a focus on the US-backed War on Drugs in Mexico and the struggle in Mexico to strengthen the rule of law, justice and protection of human rights. Relevant political developments in both countries are also covered.

May 27, 2012

Drug Probe Targets Mexican Army

WSJ.com: MEXICO CITY—The arrest of a former deputy defense minister and three other retired and active high-ranking Mexican army officers on suspicion of having been in the pay of a drug cartel is shaping up as the biggest scandal to hit the army in years.

Last week, a judge issued preliminary detention orders for three generals and a lieutenant colonel. The move allows prosecutors from the organized-crime division of the Attorney General's Office to question the men for up to 40 days before formal charges would need to be filed.

Officials haven't said why the men are being held. But according to the men's relatives, a person familiar with the legal proceedings and media accounts citing unnamed sources in the Attorney General's Office, the four are being questioned over allegations they were in the pay of one of Mexico's leading organized crime groups, the Beltran Leyva cartel. Read more.